From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Oct 12 18:42:43 2005 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id EB74C16A420 for ; Wed, 12 Oct 2005 18:42:43 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from cholland@redmoonbroadband.com) Received: from exchange.redmoonbroadband.com (exchange.redmoonbroadband.com [206.123.80.131]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3CA8743D48 for ; Wed, 12 Oct 2005 18:42:42 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from cholland@redmoonbroadband.com) X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft Exchange V6.5.7226.0 Content-class: urn:content-classes:message MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2005 13:42:39 -0500 Message-ID: <4B3EE484EEA4F344BBB62F8316489986467895@corpsrv.RedMoon.local> X-MS-Has-Attach: X-MS-TNEF-Correlator: Thread-Topic: Patch vs. Upgrade Thread-Index: AcXPUjaRLytH/Mj9SaGO3xHcMeY4NQACV5YA From: "Cody Holland" To: "David Kirchner" Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: RE: Patch vs. Upgrade X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2005 18:42:44 -0000 On 10/12/05, Andrew P. wrote: > > If things are not too tight on your hard drive, consider the cvsup=20 > > way. It's very easy - and very clearly described in the handbook. >=20 > I've seen many people say this, but I suspect they haven't=20 > tried looking for information on patching using cvsup in the=20 > handbook. It's not easy to find. I think we're doing a=20 > disservice to the community directing people there without=20 > pointing them to a specific page (it is a 4MB document). >=20 > The notes on using cvsup to keep your system up to date are=20 > under the section header "Cutting Edge". I dunno about you,=20 > but when it comes to security patches, I'd like to see them=20 > as easy as possible, not something as elite as that. Maybe=20 > that's just a poor choice of a title, though. >=20 > The only specifically correct information -- using 'standard-supfile' > -- appears under the header "Using FreeBSD-CURRENT", a=20 > section most newbies certainly ought to avoid unless they=20 > want to run bleeding-edge may-not-compile-at-all code. >=20 > In any case, a direct link to the information on how to keep=20 > your system up to date is available here: >=20 > http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/curr > ent-stable.html#AEN27683 >=20 > You only need to read paragraph 2a -- the rest has to do with=20 > -CURRENT and other crufty methods of getting source. Then you=20 > can skip to: >=20 > http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/sync > hing.html >=20 > and read that and the next page. That should be enough to get=20 > you going with the latest -RELEASE-pNN patch level. >=20 Thanks for the response. I did a terrible job of asking the correct question to get the response I wanted. I do know to cvsup the source and build/make world. I currently have 4 FreeBSD servers in production serving various tasks. The question I should have been asking is: Is using the security patches provided by the FreeBSD maintainers as good as actually updating the whole server? What are the pros and cons of using the security patches vs. full source upgrade via cvsup? Thanks, Cody